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London Marriage Allegations
(1521-1610)London, Essex and part of Hertfordshire lay within the diocese of London. In the later 17th century the individual archdeaconry courts issued marriage licences, but for this period the only surviving material is from the overarching London Consistory court. The main series of marriage allegations from the consistory court starts 7 December 1597, and these were extracted by Colonel Joseph Lemuel Chester; Colonel Chester then discovered earlier material, back to 5 January 1521, in Vicar-General's Books of the Principal Probate Registry. The notices in these books were much briefer, but as well as extending back so much earlier, they included additional material for 1597 onwards. All this he collated with the consistory court extracts, and the text was edited by George J. Armytage and published by the Harleian Society in 1887. A typical later entry will give date; name, address and occupation of groom; name, address and condition of his intended bride, and/or, where she is a spinster, her father's name, address and occupation. Lastly we have the name of the church where the wedding was going to take place; or the words Gen. Lic. signifying a general or open licence.

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PCC Probates and Administrations
(1646)The Prerogative Court of Canterbury's main jurisdiction was central and southern England and Wales, as well as over sailors &c dying abroad: these brief abstracts, compiled under the title "Year Books of Probates", and printed in 1906, usually give address, date of probate and name of executor or administrator. They are based on the Probate Act Books, cross-checked with the original wills, from which additional details are, occasionally, added. The original spelling of surnames was retained, but christian and place names have been modernised where necessary.

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Traders and professionals in London
(1805)Holden's Triennial Directory for 1805 to 1807 includes this 'London Alphabet of Businesses, Professions, &c.': coverage is good; about 30,000 individuals are recorded.

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London Traders
(1814)The fifteenth edition of The Post-Office Annual Directory includes this 'List of More than 17,000 Merchants, Traders, &c. of London, and Parts Adjacent', arranged alphabetically by surname, with trade in italics, and address.

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Tradesmen of Lynn in Norfolk
(1292-1836)Lists of admissions of freemen of Lynn from the earliest surviving records to 1836 were published by the Norfolk and Norwich Archaeological Society in 1913. These lists were extracted from the tallage rolls of 1291 to 1306; the Red Register of Lynn from 1342 to 1395; from the assembly rolls for the reigns of Henry IV and V [1399 to 1422]; from the hall books from 1423; and from a list of freemen starting in 1443 in the Book of Oaths (but itself abstracted from entries in the hall books). Freedom of the borough, necessary to practise a trade there, could be obtained by birth (in which case the father's name and occupation are usually given); by apprenticeship to a freeman (the master's name and occupation being given); by gratuity; or by purchase. Both the freemen and the masters listed are indexed here. The main abbreviations used are: B., freedom taken up by right of birth; A., freedom taken up by right of apprenticeship; G., freedom granted by order of assembly (gratuity); and P., freedom acquired by purchase.

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British merchant seamen
(1835-1840)At this period, the foreign trade of ships plying to and from the British isles involved about 150,000 men on 15,000 ships; and the coasting trade about a quarter as many more. A large proportion of the seamen on these ships were British subjects, and so liable to be pressed for service in the Royal Navy; but there was no general register by which to identify them, so in 1835 parliament passed a Merchant Seamen's Registration Bill. Under this act a large register of British seamen was compiled, based on ships' crew lists gathered in British and Irish ports, and passed up to the registry in London. A parliamentary committee decided that the system devised did not answer the original problem, and the original register was abandoned after less than two years: the system was then restarted in this form, with a systematic attempt to attribute the seamen's (ticket) numbers, and to record successive voyages. The register records the number assigned to each man; his name; age; birthplace; quality (S = seaman, &c.); and the name and official number of his ship, with the date of the crew list (usually at the end of a voyage). Most of the men recorded were born in the British Isles, but not all. The system was still very cumbersome, because the names were amassed merely under the first two letters of surname; an attempt was made to separate out namesakes by giving the first instance of a name (a), the second (b), and so on. During 1840 this series of ledgers was abandoned, and a new set started with names grouped together by surname. BT 112/6

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Traders and professionals in London
(1856)The Post Office London Directory for 1856 includes this 'Commercial and Professional Directory', recording over 100,000 individuals.

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Long-stay Paupers in Workhouses: Whittlesey
(1861)This comprehensive return by the Poor Law Board for England and Wales in July 1861 revealed that of the 67,800 paupers aged 16 or over, exclusive of vagrants, then in the Board's workhouses, 14,216 (6,569 men, 7,647 women) had been inmates for a continuous period of five years and upwards. The return lists all these long-stay inmates from each of the 626 workhouses that had been existence for five years and more, giving full name; the amount of time that each had been in the workhouse (years and months); the reason assigned why the pauper in each case was unable to sustain himself or herself; and whether or not the pauper had been brought up in a district or workhouse school (very few had). The commonest reasons given for this long stay in the workhouse were: old age and infirm (3,331); infirm (2,565); idiot (1,565); weak mind (1,026); imbecile (997); and illness (493).